WRITING IN SOCIOLOGY 1
Writing in Sociology
Samantha Smith
Professor Green
ENGL 150-11
15 April 2015
WRITING IN SOCIOLOGY 2
Writing in Sociology
Introduction
Each field of study uses writing in different ways. While these fields may have some
things in common in their writing it is important to know the specific things that each field
requires. In the field of sociology writing can take many forms. This can be in the form of a
textbook, scholarly article, or even a blog in some cases.Writing in the field of sociology has
many forms for the different types of sociology and can be used in many different ways to serve
different purposes.
Methods and Materials
The methods used for conducting research to answer this question were difficult. It was
difficult to discover the proper methods to answer the question of how writing is used in the field
of sociology. Much research had to be sorted through to discover the appropriate articles to
answer the question.
Much can be discovered about sociological writing through the analyzation of various
academic journal articles. In the article "Parental separation/divorce in childhood and partnership
outcomes at age 30" by David M. Fergusson, Geraldine F. H. McLeod, and L. John Horwood it
can be seen how a sociological article should be set up. The article is very detailed and is set up
how sociological scholarly articles should be set up.
Another example of sociological writing can be seen in the article "Childhood problem
behavior and parental divorce: evidence for gene environment interaction" by Sylvana Robbers,
Floor van Oort, Anja Huizink, Frank Verhulst, Catharina van Beijsterveldt, Dorret Boomsma,
and Meike Bartels (2012).
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An interview with Dr. Carl Riden, a professor of sociology at Longwood University in
Farmville Virginia, was also conducted to discover more about the specifics of writing in
sociology. Dr. Riden discussed the use of sociology in many fields of sociology.
The textbook You May Ask Yourself by Dalton Conley (2013) is a good example of
sociological writing in book form. In this book Conley outlines the basics of sociology. In the
chapter of the book titled methods Conley addresses various research methods used by
sociologists.
Results
During an interview with Dr. Riden in 2015 she explained how writing is used in the
various disciplines in sociology. Dr. Risen stated "Well I mean there's academic, academic
sociology and then there's applied and public sociology. And academically we're publishing in
scholarly journals. I would say the bulk of sociology is published in journal articles. Though of
course there are some sociologists who publish books in particular qualitative sociologists
typically publish books because the nature of our work, our data is much more lengthy" (Riden).
She explained that in the professional world the bulk of writing is published in scholarly journals
although some sociologists cannot condense their work into scholarly journals so they publish
books. These books are generally published by qualitative sociologists because their work is so
extensive. When asked what Dr. Riden thought the biggest difference between undergraduate
writing and writing in the professional field of sociology she explained that undergraduate
writing generally only analyze and condense the research done by sociologists in the professional
world. Students generally do not expand on this research and continue to do their own research.
Dr. Riden described the work done by students as the beginning step of what sociologists do in
the field (Riden 2015).
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Sociological research can also be published in the form of books. An example of this
style of writing can be seen in textbooks used by undergraduate students in the discipline. The
textbook You May Ask Yourself by Dalton Conley (2013) is a good example of sociological
writing in book form. In this book Conley outlines the basics of sociology. In the chapter of the
book titled methods Conley addresses various research methods used by sociologists. Conley
describes quantitative methods as those methods that produce data that is already in numeric
form or that can be put into numeric form. Conley also describes qualitative methods as those
methods whose results cannot easily be converted into numeric form (pp. 44-45). Conley
describes the two major methods of research used in the field of sociology in this textbook. This
is an excellent example of how sociological writing can be used in book form. The format of
books is very different from a journal article. Conley's book is organized into three sections that
are then divided into chapters.
As it can be seen in the article by Fergusson, Geraldine, McLeod, and Horwood and the
article by Robbers, Oort, Huizink, Verhulst, Beijsterveldt, Boomsma, and Bartels the format is
similar. Both articles are broken down into sections for research, research methods, and the
results and conclusions from the research. These sociological journal articles also contain
research from other researchers that help explain why the researchers are doing their research
and how they came to their research question.
In the article "Childhood problem behavior and parental divorce: evidence for gene
environment interaction"(2012) Sylvana Robbers, Floor van Oort, Anja Huizink, Frank Verhulst,
Catharina van Beijsterveldt, Dorret Boomsma, and Meike Bartels discussed the various methods
used during their research. They discussed their procedures for collecting their data which
involved selecting twins born between certain years. The parents of the twins were sent surveys
WRITING IN SOCIOLOGY 5
at ages three and twelve. The data received was then analyzed and the researchers came to their
conclusions (pp. 1540-1541). This is an excellent example of showing how research is extended
beyond the stages of analyzing the research of others. After Robbers et al analyzed the research
done by others in their field they formulated their research question. The researchers then
designed their study and carried it out. At the end of the article by Robbers et al they suggested
ways to extend the study. Robbers et al suggested that "It would be interesting to extend our
study with adult data of these children, in order to investigate if the experience of parental
divorce in childhood also affects variability in problem behaviors in adulthood" (2012 p. 1547).
This suggests possible holes in the research or places where the research can be furthered and
bettered by other researchers.
The article "Parental separation/divorce in childhood and partnership outcomes at age 30"
(2013) by David M. Fergusson, Geraldine F. H. McLeod, and L. John Horwood again shows the
proper setup and shows how writing is used in sociology. In this article by Fergusson et al the
methods for the research are clearly outlined. Fergusson et al explain that they studied their
participants twenty two times from their birth to age thirty. The parents of the children were
interviewed about divorce and separation. At age thirty the participants were interviewed about
their romantic relationships" (2013 p. 354). This is a clear explanation of how students should
format their methods. Fergusson et al also explicitly explained their conclusions in the abstract of
the paper stating "These findings suggest that the general associations between childhood
parental separation/divorce and partner relationships in adulthood reflect the consequences of
various contextual factors that are associated with childhood parental separation" (2013 p. 352).
Researchers should clearly state their findings in their papers so that other researchers can further
the research and obtain a greater knowledge of the subject.
WRITING IN SOCIOLOGY 6
Further Discussion
Writing is used in sociology in many ways. The research done by sociologists can be
published in journal articles, which make up the bulk of publications, and books. The format of
these books and scholarly articles is much different. Scholarly articles are generally condensed
research that is then peer reviewed and published in a sociological journal. Books on the other
hand contain all of the research conducted, generally because the research is too lengthy to be
condensed, that is peer reviewed and published. All of the above articles and the book mentioned
are excellent examples of the various ways writing can be used in sociology. Students writing
also varies from that of the professional world. In general students do not go past the point of
analyzing the research done by others. Students rarely move into furthering the research done by
others.
It would be interesting to analyze work done by sociologists conducting research public
sociology and compare that work to the work done by sociologists publishing scholarly articles.
Also it would be interesting to see the differences in the level of writing as students move
through their undergraduate studies and advance their skills. The comparison of the writings of
students could help determine how to help students so that they can be more successful when the
reach the professional world.
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References
Conley, D. (2013). Methods. In You May Ask Yourself (3rd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton &
Company.
Fergusson, D. M., McLeod, G. H., & John Horwood, L. (2014). Parental separation/divorce in
childhood and partnership outcomes at age 30. Journal Of Child Psychology &
Psychiatry, 55(4), 352-360. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12107
Riden, C. (2015, April 1). Writing in Sociology [Personal interview].
Robbers, S., Oort, F., Huizink, A., Verhulst, F., Beijsterveldt, C., Boomsma, D., & Bartels, M.
(2012). Childhood problem behavior and parental divorce: evidence for gene
environment interaction. Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, 47(10), 15391548. doi:10.1007/s00127-011-0470-9